Waterbury evening Democrat., 1887-12-23
GERMS IN THE ICE.
WATER DOES NOT KILL
 ALL THE BACTERIA.

Dr. Pruden's Analysis of the Ice Con-
 stunned by the City of New York-somc
 Alarming Results = Suggestions for
 Health Boards.
 It is popularly supposed that water in freezing becomes purified, and that the in- furious clements that there may be in it arc eliminated by the action of the frost For a long time it was considered that even though ice was frozen over water known to be filthy the ice was nevertheless pure, and the ap- parent sanction of science was given to this theory. Recent investigations by learned microscopists have, however, thrown new light upon this question: and while it is still admitted that a large percentage of the tn- furious elements of impure water become lost when it is frozen it has also been shown that enough impurities remain in the frozen water to make it possible to spread to an alarming extent any disease the infectious elements of which were contained in the water in its liquid state.
 One of the persons who has made an ex- haustive study of this subject is Dr. T. Mitch ell Prudden, the director of tho laboratory of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in this city. In the early part of the year he contributed long article to The Medical
 
 very careful analyses of different samples of ice taken from all the sources of supply around New York. He came to the conclu- sion that typhoid fever and possibly cholera might easily be spread among the consumers of the ice which is formed on the Hudson.
 'This river," he says, ''is at the best rather shallow, and large quantities of detritus an- nually brought down the stream cause con- stant and considerable change in the bottom. The islands in the river from Coxsackie to Albany are gradually formed from the sedi- mentary deposit At the upper part of this section, Troy, a city of over 5O,OOO inhabit- ants, empties daily S,OOO,0OO gallons of sew age into the river, which is already charged with contributions from Cohoes and Lansing burg, to say nothing of the impurities brought by the Mohawk from the west. A few miles below Troy Albany, with over 90,O00 inhabitants, has also an efficient sew age system, which it pours directly into the river.''
 Taking the results of all his analyses of ice from the various sources, he finds that the average number of living bacteria contained in one cubic centimeter of the melted ice is 2,033, or, to put it in more common terms, a pint of melted ice would harbor about 500 ,OOO living bacteria of various kinds. He who, impressed with the importance of a pure "oCSA ohoul>i pCA ACSOAy hlOCI uulI d glass of average winter Croton water and then add to it equal quantity of average ice, would have the satisfaction of replacing the bacteria removed with more than eight times many from moro uncertain and questionable sources.
 One reason, Dr. Pruden says, why it was never before known by scientific men that ice might contain the germs of disease was that the only method of research was by chemical examination. These could not, ex- cept inferentially, determine the presence of bacteria. It is no longer necessary to infer their presence These living germs may now be actually counted, and their species and actions on the animal body definitely deter mined. The new method by which this in formation is obtained is called the biological analysis.
 In the experiments made by Dr. Pruden samples of ice which contained evident gross impurities, such as grass and straw, were in all cases rejected as not fairly representative. It has been shown that bacteria may exist in enormous numbers without ilnpairing the clearness and transparency of the ice.
 Dr. Pruden made biological analyses of 153 samples taken from docks of ice from the Hudson river at various points from West Park to the vicinity of Troy. These en- braced samples ffooih all the prominent ice fields and many of the small ones. In all of these he found large number of bacteria of different kinds. Snow ice, Dr. Pruden found, contained many times the number of bacteria found in transparent ice taken from the same blocks. Bubbly ice was also i'm pregnated to much larger extent than transparent ice with these organisms, but he found that this rule as to bubbly ice and snow ice holds good only when the water from which the ice is formed contains a consider | able number of bacteria.
 Hudson river ice contained much larger number of bacterial impurities than the ice taken from the other waters near New York, and, while some of these bacteria may be considered harmless, others, he said, were un- doubtedly injurious. The fact that two com | mon and very important bacterial forms of disease, typhoid fever and diseases associated l with blood poisoning, are almost constantly | present ill large towns like Troy and Albany, and frequently i'll villages along the upper Hudson confirms the statement made by him that Hudson river water is impure for drink l ing purposes. He says he does not know whether the bacteria of typhoid fever may retain life indefinitely or not in ice, as the longest period in which they have been kept frozen to his knowledge is 103 days. | He suggests that tho state board of health, or some other authorized body, should have full control over the ice harvesting fields, and by system of inspection not less strict than that which should exist ill the care of the ordinary water supply, determine which, if any, of the sources of ice supply are so situated as to imperil the health of the con- sumers of the ice In tho case of the Hudson river it would be necessary to establish by most thorough scientific examination the distances from all existing sources of sewage pollution, ct which it might be safely as stunned that tho water had freed itself from bacteria and other impurities sufficiently to form safe ice. It might in this way be pos sible to remove any chance of danger by l permitting tho questionable or bad ice to be sold only for non-drinking purposes, if such a classification is practicable, and thus not essentially interfere with the interests of the ice companies.
 Dr. Walter De r. Day, the sanitary super intendent of this city, said that the board of health does not have any supervision over the ice brought into the city at present. II
 has not yet been demonstrated that any dan.
 ger exists, or that any infection has been
 caused in this way, and the question has
 therefore not been seriously considered. The
 theoretical possibility of infection from this
 source he admitted. Professor Chandler, oi
 Columbia college, who is one of the most em inent microscopists in tho city, has also made